Somalia faces more
turmoil as official president resigns
Abdullahi Yusuf, a 74-year-old
former warlord, resigned the presidency and admitted that his
Western-backed transitional government had failed to unite the
country during his four-year tenure. "I had promised to return the
power if I could not bring peace, stability and democracy where
people can elect their leader," he said.
Mr Yusuf's government controlled hardly any territory and depended
largely on troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, who invaded Somalia in
December 2006. However, they are on the point of leaving. Once
Ethiopian forces depart, radical Islamists are likely to seize
Mogadishu and large areas of southern Somalia.
Mr Yusuf has chosen to resign a few days before he would otherwise
have been overthrown or forced to evacuate the capital. The outgoing
president explained that he had been unable to pay his soldiers.
"Then the army disintegrated, unable to fight extremists," he said.
Mr Yusuf is a polarising figure in Somalia. He refused to negotiate
with moderate factions of the Islamist opposition, pushing them into
the arms of the hardline Al-Shebab movement, which may have links to
al-Qaeda and is now poised to capture the capital and extend its
reach in southern Somalia.
Mr Yusuf had been locked in a power struggle with his prime
minister, Nur Hassan Hussein. Somalia has had no functioning central
government since 1991. The country is now divided into fiefdoms run
by warlords.
Source:Telegraph.co.uk
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